After Hours
by justsomeboy
Summary: Snape is out of bed after hours. What is he doing, and why does Filch have to ask so many questions?


Severus Snape wasn't one to disobey rules. He kept his head down at school, like he kept his head down at home, and stayed out of trouble. Granted, it had been much harder, since Lucius had left school two years earlier, but he managed well enough. At the moment, however, he was breaking at least two rules – he was out of bed after hours, in the Potions lab, working on Veritaserum. 

A strange venture for a sixth year Potions student, but Severus was at the top of his class for the very good reason that he excelled in such studies, much in the same way that he excelled in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Mostly, he just wanted to see if he could actually do it. Keeping the brew a secret had been difficult – but a few simple charms manipulated the cauldron to appear in the lab when he wanted it to – otherwise it stayed, safe and invisible, at the small table beside his dormitory bed.

"Ah HA!"

The sudden shout was enough to make the pale boy squeak and almost knock his cauldron over as he turned – he'd been so wrapped up in slicing herbs, that he hadn't heard the school caretaker, Argus Filch, sneak into the room. Normally the man's damnable cat gave Severus a little bit of warning, being so noisy, but apparently Filch had gotten the better of him, this time.

"What are you brewing there, Snape? Poison? A dye to turn everyone's hair green?" Severus fought the urge to roll his eyes, rubbing at his forehead. The dye had been Lucius's idea – a sending off, if you will, to the last Head Boy to be from Slytherin for a long time to come, and Severus had served detention for two weeks for it. Even old McGonagalls hair had been bright, vibrant, Slytherin green.

"Veritaserum, Mr. Filch, I'm brewing Veritaserum."

The older man's eyebrow quirked. "Truth serum? What for?" Filch, fairly young at twenty-four, looked much older than he was – Probably due to his own misadventures as a squib child in a wizarding family. The rumor was that he'd been on the receiving end of many a curse from family members, and that was why he was so damnably easy to agitate. Snape was of the opinion that it was just the caretaker's 'old man habits' showing through - he scowled too much, and didn't shave nearly enough. It gave him the appearance of some kind of muggle hobo.

"To see if I could do it." Honest answer. Severus didn't lie very often, mainly because he was terrible at it. He looked at Filch, who glared for a moment, and, just as Snape was expecting him to bellow out that he needed to be in bed, and assign some kind of horrible detention, he asked,

"Could you show me how?"

Snape blinked once, twice. "What?"

"Show me how, or I'll tell Slughorn you've been up and out of bed." Snape sneered – he wasn't fond of his head of house, and most people knew it. Slughorn surrounded himself with people of talent, with connections and money and other exceptional qualities – which meant that he had no interest in Severus at all.

Severus was short for his age, skinny as a rail, with hair that never seemed to get clean, a terrible hooked nose, robes that were just too short for him, and an interest in studying that didn't extend to anything beyond Potions, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and the occasional Charms assignment. And Herbology. But Herbology was an important part of Potions.

But, simply, he was not the kind of material that Slughorn invited to his ridiculously lavished dinner parties – not that Snape wanted to be there.

"You will not." He glared, staring up at Filch, who towered over him by at least a head.

"I will so, you just watch." The student snarled under his breath. "What was that?" Filch poked Snape's shoulder with one bony finger.

"I said that I think Veritaserum is too complicated. Maybe if you want to start in on Potions you should start with something simpler."

Filch, for his part, looked startled. "Like what?"

Damn. "Like… A cheering potion. Or… Something like that."

"You gonna show me how to do it?"

A pause. "Only if you don't tell Slughorn I've been here." He didn't want his head of house on his case about his being out of bed after hours (he was of the opinion that he was sixteen, Damnit, and he could be out of bed whenever he pleased.)

Snape was well aware the Filch was a squib – but it didn't take magic for potions. It took brains, patience, and a knowledge of exactly what the hell you were doing. You only needed magic for seriously complicated potions, nothing like a cheering draught.

The caretaker seemed to consider, rubbing at his unshaven jaw for a moment, before nodding. "All right. You show me. I don't tell Slughorn you've been up and out after hours."

"Deal." Conjuring the ingredients wasn't difficult, and Filch sat down on a stood beside Snape, Mrs. Norris at their feet, staring up at them.

"Now." Severus started, opening his book to the correct page. "I want you to follow the instructions. Let me know if you have questions, but I'm not going to make the potion for you. You should try to do it yourself first."

Filch nodded, and Snape noted, for the first time, that the hunch in his shoulders was because he was slouching. Sitting in the stool had him sitting up straight, which made him a fair bit taller than he was normally. Snape always sat up straight, because he was short – perhaps slouching was just something that taller people did to help themselves fit in.

A few minutes into the exercise, Filch grumbled under his breath. "What?" Severus asked, turning away from his own position.

"I said, what's 'windershins' mean?" Severus blinked, before realizing what it was that the caretaker was talking about.

"They're asking you to stir windershins?" Filch nodded. "That means anti-clockwise." He had to forcibly remind himself that he needed to be polite, as the urge to add, 'that means to the left', like he was tutoring a first year student, was very, very strong.

"All right." Filch squinted over the page, stirring the potion seven times counter-clockwise, and once clock-wise, repeating the motion three times, when at which point, the liquid in the small cauldron had turned a pale orange. "S'at right?" He pointed, poking Severus in the shoulder again.

The sixth-year looked over the book, and at the cauldron in front of him. Surprise edged onto his features – he hadn't expected the caretaker to get it in one go. It took most first years at least three tries before they managed it.

Although, he supposed that Filch was more careful and calculating than any first year student.

"Very good." Severus nodded solemnly, and Filch grinned. The student blinked at his teeth – they were neat, white. He'd been under the impression – like everyone else at school – that Filch had a very bad sense of hygiene, although according to most students, Severus was just as bad.

If not worse.

"What do I do with it now?" Filch asked, and Snape almost smiled.

"Well. You put it in a bottle, and take a swallow when you need to be cheered up."

"Where do I get a bottle?"

"The cabinet, there." Severus flicked his wand, and the cupboard door opened. He could have sworn that he saw a jealous glint in Filch's eye, but it was gone as soon as it appeared, and the caretaker was walking to get a small bottle to put the potion in. It was poured, carefully, and Filch turned to Snape.

"Clean up when you're done." The bottle was tucked into his jacket pocket, and before Severus could say anything else, Filch and his cat were gone.


End file.
